THE Conservative Party continued its conflict about Europe yesterday. The two leadership contenders, the pro EU former chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke, and the Euro sceptic former social security minister, Mr Peter Lilley, blamed each other's side for the "devastating" election defeat.
With the Euro sceptic Mr John Redwood also announcing yesterday that it was "very likely" he would be another contender, it appears Europe will dominate the leadership race. The Tory leadership succession is wide open since the deputy prime minister Mr Michael Heseltine, ruled himself out of the contest on Saturday after being admitted to hospital suffering from an angina attack.
The former Welsh secretary Mr William Hague, and the former home secretary, Mr Michael Howard, are also expected to announce their candidacies this week. Both are from the right of the party. They may publicly offer the Tory chairmanship to Mr Michael Portillo, the former defence secretary who lost his seat, in an attempt to secure his friends' votes.
Mr Clarke denounced the Eurosceptics, suggesting the divisions over Europe had become a "kind of cancer at the heart of the party" which led to the "destruction" of Mr John Major's government. He considered it "very unlikely" he would sit in a shadow cabinet led by Mr Redwood.
"Labour did not win this enormous majority because we had not become rightwing and Eurosceptic enough. The public were rather indifferent to this internal Conservative squabble over Europe, except they thought it made us look rather a shambles and not an elect able party. The survivors of this campaign will have to face up to the fact that they cannot carry on with that sort of dissent," he said.
However, in an attempt to create party unity, Mr Clarke pledged he would offer a free vote on all European issues, including monetary union. But this move failed to appease Mr Lilley, who claimed the idea was unrealistic.
"I can't really envisage an opposition not having a collective view on important legislation going through parliament, for example, to take us into a single currency," he added. He had received an "avalanche" of telephone calls from supporters since announcing his candidacy for the leadership on Saturday.
"After a devastating defeat I want to win," Mr Lilley said. "I want to win this election and the next general election and I think I am the best placed to unite the party and rebuild the party, which has got to be done with great speed and with absolute thoroughness in time to win back that majority in Westminster."
Saying he wanted to take further soundings among parliamentary colleagues before announcing his candidacy, Mr Redwood stressed he would never allow Britain to join a single currency before suggesting Europe should not be allowed to dominate any leadership race.
Mr Redwood added that as the official opposition party, the Tories should now be about "all of us behaving ourselves and not being strident and not going to extremes, but finding the very considerable common ground on which we can stand."
Another possible contender, the former health secretary, Mr Stephen Dorrell, declared he was also considering his position and argued that the Conservatives needed an "exciting" message to revitalise their support.
"The Conservative Party must set out its objective of being a credible opposition within months, a credible, alternative government within months, and we must fight month by month, year by year, through this parliament to challenge for office in the next general election," he added.
The former prime minister, Mr Major, is expected to announce details of his caretaker shadow cabinet early this week. It is understood that former ministers who survived the "election cull" will keep their existing portfolios until a new party leader is elected.